Week Four

After a relaxing weekend in Koldenhof it was difficult to get back on track and move forward with our plan but on Wednesday we put together a comprehensive plan for how we actually wanted our film to look. We continued to refine it on Thursday and by the end of Thursday we had a list of shots we needed along with a long list of Tischtennis clubs and a complete map with all of the ping pong tables in Berlin on it. If as a group we are good at nothing else, one thing that I can say for sure is that we do well brainstorming together.

During our bus ride to the Bavarian Quarter with Thorsten on Friday, I was able to sit up front on the bus and get some great footage through the city. This was something that we had actually been planning on beforehand, so it was great that we were able to on a bus designed for sightseeing, with clean windows. After our time in the Bavarian Quarter we were able to take Thorsten's advice and visit the 20th floor where the Tech Uni Cafe is located. From there we were able to get some good panning shots of the city. The food there was also pretty good.

Friday night we set out to see our first ping pong pubs. After not finding the first couple we finally made it to Dr. Pongs. By the time we got there it was already 1am. Although our outing was more of an exploratory effort, since we were without our camera, we were able to note spots where we would be able to set up the camera and where the lighting was good. After staying for an hour and feeling the vibe Frodo and Jessica decided to leave but Jessie and I stayed to get in on the pong action. We played all night, got to talk to some people and saw some really intense ping pong go down. It is definitely a great place to get some footage and have fun doing it. We stayed until 5 am and at that point there was still no end in sight for the rowdy bunch at Dr. Pong's.

We wrapped up the week on Sunday by traveling the parks between our apartments and Hermanplatz filming four different tables and actually getting lucky enough to catch some people playing on an outside table. It was fun because just asking to film them play allowed us to get to know them a little and for them to give us further recommendations on where we might have success filming.